City tries to strike a balance between celebrating Louisville's success, mitigating impacts on residents

LOUISVILLE — Special events are critical to the look and feel of Louisville, but the city needs to come up with a better way of permitting events that draw thousands of people to town, city leaders said Tuesday night.

The City Council heard lots of feedback from residents, event promoters and business owners as they discussed ways of keeping vibrant events — like the Downtown Street Faire, Movies and Food Trucks in the Park, and the Sonic Boom bike race — around while mitigating their impacts on residents.

But no one on the council had the appetite for placing a moratorium on permits for new events — one of the options that had been presented to the council members by city staffers.

"The goal is not to stop having special events," Mayor Bob Muckle said. "I'm not looking to make the permitting so hard and chase everyone away, but I want us to do it better."

The council heard from those touting events in Louisville as an economic booster and point of civic pride and those who said their popularity has led to traffic problems, parking challenges and impacts to local businesses. Even the library takes a hit on Friday nights in the summer, Library Director Beth Barrett said, when thousands of people congregate in the city for Street Faire.

She said compared to non-Street Faire nights, the library sees a 28 to 35 percent drop-off in checkouts when music-loving throngs are in town.

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"We hear a lot from people saying they've just stopped coming in June and July," Barrett said. "We think it has an impact on our summer reading, and that's too bad."

Jacques Blanchard, who owns the Louisville Rex, said his revenues drop by a third when the Sonic Boom bike race comes through town and cyclists zip right past his front door. He said that's ironic, as the race is sponsored by a competing business in the city, Lucky Pie Pizza.

He also said he noticed a drop in business during several Wednesdays last summer when Movies and Food Trucks in the Park drew film buffs with empty stomachs to Community Park and away from Main Street.

"It would just be nice to be consulted before something like that impacts your business," Blanchard said.

But Patrick Walsh, who owns Bittersweet Café in downtown Louisville, said the special events are a testament to the city's popularity.

"While it might impact my business once or twice, ultimately it drives so much attention to the community that it makes my business so much more valuable than if it was in another community," he said. "The more, the merrier — let's bring people here."

Jeff Suffolk, who owns Louisville-based events management firm Human Movement Management and helps put on the movies in the park series, suggested that the city use a rating system to prioritize which events best reflect the community's values and weed out the ones that don't.

He also said that raising the fee promoters pay will help reflect the true cost of the events.

Councilwoman Ashley Stolzmann was one of several council members who expressed interest in looking at a rating system and being more selective about what events come to town.

"It's hard to say no to people, but ultimately there's only so many days in the year and only so many spaces," she said.

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